Interesting comments TJ. From what I've heard, one of the doctors behind the development said he had no trouble at all swallowing it, experiencing no discomfort. The again when was the last time a doctor said, "this won't hurt at all"?

Apparently the device can navigate the small intestine. Maybe they do have to lead it to wider spaces though for that U-turn.

Great. It can be controlled from outside one's body. There's NOTHING in the article about what it feels like to the patient. And no, I never swallowed a goldfish.

What's the turning radius? That behemoth looks like it could turn inside the stomach, but that's it. Can you see a new operator getting jack-knifed in the small intestine? Do we send a second one down to tow it free? Or can it be dislodged by several well-placed thumps to the abdomen?

Very cool. I would imagine this is just the beginning of putting devices inside the body to look around and take readings. As technology gets smaller, I would imagine we'll see a wide range of applications for inner-body exploration.

This is a great advancement from traditional devices. Being able to control the device while inside the body will allow doctors to really explore areas they think are problematic and will be able to help a lot of people. The size of the mermaid is rather large, and I wonder if people will shy away from the technology because of its size.

The idea of operator control with such a device is indeed compelling. Add in the benefits of 3D visualization and there's no telling what can be detected and erradicated with this kind of technology. This this the kind of engineering advancement we want to hear more of.

It's becoming clear that medical devices is probably the single biggest arena in which design engineers can have a huge impact. Here we have a case where the technology was already in place and someone came up with an application which is an incremental advance on what was previously available. But there are also numerous opportunities to push the tech envelope forward in search of new devices. Even if they're just for one-time use. . .

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